FDA to examine claim that lipstick lead levels unsafe

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Friday it would look into claims from an advocacy group that certain lipsticks contain potentially dangerous levels of lead.

Similar past claims have not been confirmed, the agency said.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics said one-third of the 33 red lipsticks examined by an independent lab contained a level of lead exceeding 0.1 parts per million (ppm), the FDA's limit for lead in candy. None listed lead as an ingredient. Thirty-nine percent of the lipsticks tested had no detectable levels of lead.

The FDA does not set a limit for lead in lipstick.

The FDA said concerns about lead in lipstick have been raised occasionally in the print media and on the Internet.

"These concerns have not generally been supported by FDA's own analysis of products on the market. In the present case, we are looking into the specific details of the issues raised," said FDA spokeswoman Stephanie Kwisnek.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics describes itself as a coalition of women's, public-health, labor, environmental-health and consumer-rights groups whose goal is to pressure companies to remove toxic chemicals from their products and replace them with safer alternatives.

The lead tests were conducted by the Bodycote Testing Group last month on lipsticks bought in Boston, San Francisco, Minneapolis and Hartford, Conn., the organization said. Bodycote Testing Group, of Sante Fe Springs, Calif., operates nearly 300 facilities around the world.

Among the top brands testing positive for lead were:

• L'Oréal Colour Riche "True Red": 0.65 ppm

• L'Oréal Colour Riche "Classic Wine": 0.58 ppm

• Cover Girl Incredifull Lipcolor "Maximum Red": 0.56 ppm

• Dior Addict "Positive Red": 0.21 ppm

L'Oréal challenged that its products contain harmful ingredients, saying in an e-mail that its products have been thoroughly reviewed and tested by the company's toxicologists, clinicians, pharmacists and physicians and are in compliance with federal regulations.

The trade association representing the cosmetic industry acknowledged "negligible" levels of lead in some lipsticks but said it is not intentionally added.

"Consumers are exposed daily to lead when they eat, drink water and breathe," said John Bailey, an executive vice president at the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association.

"The average amount of lead a woman would be exposed to when using cosmetics is 1,000 times less than the amount she would get from eating, breathing and drinking water that meets Environmental Protection Agency drinking-water standards."

Also

ConAgra Foods recalled all of its Banquet line of frozen potpies and those sold under eight store brands because of salmonella poisoning that sickened at least 165 people in 31 states, including Washington. The store brands include Western Family, Kirkwood, those at Albertsons, Wal-Mart Stores' Great Value and Kroger labels, ConAgra said.

Material from Bloomberg News is included in this report.